Historical stuff that doesn't really happen back there

"In Bible prophecy you'll find these places connected and almost used at times interchangeably. Egypt representing the world system in satanic captivity, Babylon representing the religious confusion and corruption and Baal worship and Assyria representing the political pride and corruption that comes as a result of that captivity and religious confusion.

"The beginning of idolatry began with Nimrod and the reason Babylon and Assyria are connected in Scripture, and Egypt is linked with them, is because of that connection back there at the Tower of Babel," explains Richard Jordan.

Ezekiel 31: [1] And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[2] Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude; Whom art thou like in thy greatness?
[3] Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs.

"Who's he talking about? Pharoah king of Egypt or the Assyrian? You see how He puts them interchangeably?

Isaiah 52:4: [4] For thus saith the Lord GOD, My people went down aforetime into Egypt to sojourn there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

"Wait a minute, if you're in Egypt and Pharoah is the head, how come he's called the Assyrian? You remember in Exodus it says a Pharoah came up who didn't know Joseph? That's this guy.

"What's going on is a spiritual thing happening behind the scenes. If literally an Assyrian had come and taken over the throne in Egypt . . . but there's more than just the literal issue there.

"These guys are all linked going back to the Tower of Babel and the spiritual corruption that began there. That spiritual corruption comes through the Old Testament--Egypt, Assyria (which Nineveh is the capital of) and Babylon work all through Scripture back there.

Ezekiel 31:8: [8] The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty.

[9] I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

Verse 18: [18] To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth: thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

"Almost like an identity crisis. Is it Pharoah or is it the Assyrian? This guy was in Eden, the garden of God. If you look at verses 12-14 you see he's going to be in Armageddon. So he's back at the beginning and he's going to be over there at the end.

"When you're looking at these cities and their leaders, you're really looking prophetically at what's going to culminate with the Second Coming. This historical stuff is really just a dress rehearsal for the real thing that comes at the end.

Micah 7: [14] Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

[15] According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.
[16] The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
[17] They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

"What He's going to do with them out there in Revelation 12, when He feeds them in the wilderness with that manna, is He's going to do AS in the days of old.

"That's the reason Jesus told them to pray, 'Give us this day our daily bread.' How did you get manna? Daily, and that believing remnant in the tribulation is going to know where to go to get that daily bread and He's going to do it out there like He did it back there. Doing it in the days of old was a dress rehearsal (as Judges 5 calls it) for the last day.

"When you read prophecies like in Nahum or Micah, and they're talking about these historical events, you say, 'You know, all the stuff He says is going to happen back here don't really happen back here.'

"Look at Nahum 2:13: [13] Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

"That prophesy hasn't been fulfilled completely because it's talking about something that's going to happen at the finish line when it's over with. You're looking at things that are really about the Second Advent and the judgments associated with Christ coming back.

"You go through these verses and honestly I've been amazed as I've taught through the minor prophets how little there is in study-helps--books written about these books. You'd think with all these guys in schools and seminaries and stuff that someone along the way would teach on some of these things but there's almost nothing written from a dispensational perspective.

"You have to go back into the mid- to late 1800s to find anything of any real value. Most of what they do is talk about the history. Well, if you can't even date when the Book of Nahum took place how are you going to know what the history is?!

"Well, why can't you? Because God wasn't so interested in these books being identified as dead, past history. Prophecy is a look into the future and that's where the real doctrinal application is--it looks toward the end times.

"The three chapters in Nahum outline themselves real easy. Chapter one Nineveh's doom is declared. Chapter two it's described and chapter three it's deserved. I read that somewhere. Wormsby has one where he says in chapter one God is jealous, chapter two God is the judge and chapter three God is just.

"What you see in chapter one is Nineveh's going to fall. In chapter two, the fall is going to be great--big time. Chapter three--they deserve it.

Nahum 1: [2] God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

[3] The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

"Notice he says God is jealous. You know the actor Morgan Freeman? He uses that verse to say, 'Jealousy is bad. God says He is jealous. Therefore God is not good.' Freeman isn't just an atheist; he's an active denier.

"In the Ten Commandments He says, 'Thou shalt not have any graven images; I'm a jealous God.' We think of jealousy as selfish and envy, but all jealousy is not bad; it's not evil.

"A philosopher said, 'Jealousy is a passion that depends for its character upon the fuel that gives its flame.' In other words, where does it come from? Does it come out of selfishness and greed, or does it come out of something else? The word jealous is a form of the word zealous, which can include moral fire."